Dh is making noises about maybe wanting to retire before 70. He's 67 now. He feels like his mental capacity isn't where it used to be, he's tired, he misses fishing (he went on a trip when we were in Maine). He was worried because I don't bring in much money from the science center and insurance would be a big need for me and the kids. But NJ has a program that is free for families and the income levels are pretty high so we should be good there. Finding that out I think made him feel better about it. And I have things I can do that will bring in more money at work that we just haven't done because it involves more hours, etc. I told him he should retire when he needs to and we'll manage. Worst case scenario is I close the science center (or he teaches some classes) and I go back to work as an executive assistant or a teacher or something like that. ETA: A retirement booya? I like a "things will be fine" booya better.

Morning, Happy Tuesday. I had to get to work at 7:15 this morning because dh remembered he had an 8am meeting and ds needs one car for school. Already been here 2 hours and class doesn't even start for another 45 minutes. It's going to be a long day.

For background, dd is 16 has anxiety, adhd, (both untreated, no therapy) is homeschooled but comes to classes at the science center I run 3 days a week (I'm her teacher), and we do still drive her to TKD. ds is 18, in college, drives himself, ASD. Also have dd 29 who would definitely be mostly quiet and doing her own thing, but also told me EVERYTHING big going on in her life. She went to public school and had an active social/work life so at home needed quiet alone time. My kids have always responded best to just giving them space, having quiet time together (example, if we watch a movie or do something in the same room not constantly trying to talk), casual inquiries, and keeping things light. Both youngers live in their rooms except during class and sometimes the most interaction I have with them is dropping a basket of clean clothes in their room and saying "clean laundry to put away" and leaving. Both have to put up with us in their rooms occasionally because my closet clothes are in dd's room and all of dh's clothes are in ds's room. So we do have to enter fairly frequently but we always knock, do what we need to do and leave. If reminders are needed about something it's a quick "don't forget xyz" and leave it. As long as I can confirm they heard me, I don't do anything more. Questions are more "think about what you'd like for xyz. I need to know by x days in the future". For dd, I might have her turn off her music for a moment in the car so I can mention something then let her put her music back on. She definitely thinks about what I said but she does better if she doesn't feel like I'm there waiting for an answer and she can think about it. We asked dd about driving and she freaked out completely. No interest in learning to drive, upset her for a good couple of hours. We're better off waiting until she brings it up since we don't have any reason she needs to drive if she's not ready. We're all introverts, all my kids get upset if they feel I'm pushing at them especially during the teen years. Our longest conversations were generally when we would take walks for exercise after class and the kids would give me a lecture on their latest video game obsession. This does require paying really close attention when I do see them or if they come out and do that hesitant "I want to say something but I'm not sure how it's going to go over and maybe I don't want to after all" attitude, I'll ask a casual "what's up?" and can usually get something out of them then. It does seem like they are telling me the important stuff, judging by things that come up. They are way more likely to talk to me than dh but I'm much better at not overreacting to things. He still says too much of what he thinks, like he thinks its ridiculous that they still both like stuffed animals and buy them when they have money. I tell him to just let them be interested in what they are interested in. They notice the difference and are more likely to tell me things if they are worried about judgement. Anyway, bottom line is that seems normal to me for teenagers.

I can't stand the trend to neon colored football uniforms. They are hideous. It's a rainy, manic Monday.

Every book club I've ever been a part of matches A. You were expected to read the book ahead of time and the meeting was to discuss it. Often with food, wine, etc. available. I'm not sure how I"d feel about B. I can't do audiobooks because my mind tends to wander away and the voices annoy me so something like that probably wouldn't work for me.

Morning, Happy Saturday. Running to Best Buy to pick up chromebooks and a small tv for one classroom, then work to take apart last weeks stuff and gather this week's stuff. It's supposed to be 75 or lower all next week so I do feel fall is coming. Today is in the 60's so far and nice and breezy so all the windows in the house are open. I did finish the laundry (including putting it away!) and unpacking yesterday.

We have Amazon Prime and generally get most things within a day or two. I'm in NJ so we do have a few warehouses somewhat close by. When things are delayed it usually seems to be because it was transferred to our post office or UPS. Most of my deliveries do come from Amazon drivers. I often order things based on when they say they can be delivered. I order things for group science classes I teach and sometimes things come up at the last minute and I really need to get them fast. Often things that aren't going to be available locally. So, I will look and order whatever version says it will deliver in one or two days.

Morning, Happy Friday! My first week back at classes is done. A few oddities, a few parents that may be an issue but for the most part things went very well. I'm off today and for some reason a 4 day week feels a LOT shorter than a 5 day week. I only taught one class on Fridays last year but despite teaching 4 classes a day this year instead of 3 most day, the week feels so much shorter and more manageable. So, that's a good sign for the year ahead. Today I'm working around home. I need to unpack from our trip, do laundry, clean up. I also ordered 3 chromebooks that I need to pick up for classes but I might wait and get them tomorrow when I'm heading into work to do some stuff there. If I don't leave the house today, I'm more likely to get things done.

That is one dense meteor.

New Jersey drivers aren't exactly passive. But I've seen some really crazy sh** lately. First I thought people just forgot how to drive during covid, but lately they seem to have gotten more aggressive and likely to do really stupid stuff. It's crazy. Dd16 doesn't want to learn to drive. She had a mini-freak out the one time dh brought it up. She has anxiety so I completely understand because if anything is an anxiety inducing activity, it would be driving.

Quoting myself to add that it's not the cost that would deter me (as probably clear by the other "museums" I wouldn't visit). We regularly go into NYC to visit the Museum of Natural History, the Met, etc. plus regularly visit aquariums, zoos and museums in other places that often cost just as much or more to visit.

I laughed at Rosie's comment too. No interest in visiting at all. Maybe if it was free and I had time to kill and nothing else to do I'd check it out, but even then probably not. I have no interest in visiting the giant Ark or Creation Museum either.

I don't think I've ever seen the movie either. ETA: Looks like I got a clueless booya.

There are 37 school districts in my county that you can drive from one end to the other in about 30 minutes (depending on traffic). They do have very different pay rates and benefits since each is basically set by the school districts. There is definitely competition between them for staff and people will switch school districts to get a better deal when they can. It has definitely affected the salaries offered in some districts, as well as other benefits. One of the top public school districts allows teachers to enroll their kids tuition free (they have a fair number of tuition students as well) and they are able to really pick and choose from a large pool of applicants because of it. I see a LOT of supply/demand effects with substitute teachers around here. They rates have gone up quite a bit the past year or so due to the lack of subs, while also lowering the requirements.

That's because everyone is going in to get their coffee and is tired, barely functional and cranky. It's safer to be cautiously nice to everyone. I'm in North Jersey and we haven't had Wawa here for long but dh is from South Jersey so I'm familiar with them. We've had three pop-up in the past couple years.

Morning, Happy Monday! Today is my first day back to classes. No break for 8 weeks (unless snow) but I don't work Fridays this year so hopefully it will be easier despite teaching four classes most days. After the 10 hour drive home from Maine we basically just collapsed. Both dh and I had to drive the entire way since we took two cars. Five people, one dog, luggage, food, etc needed both. But the driving was rough. Theoretically we had two other drivers but ds hasn't really done much highway driving and would be very uncomfortable driving highways in unfamiliar places. Plus he stayed awake all night so he could sleep the entire ride. Mom wasn't comfortable with driving my "huge" car (Honda Pilot). It was fine, we just stopped a lot. It was an amazing trip. I'd love to go back again. This was actually my third time there but the last one was about 30 years ago.

We got an alert from our Ring doorbell, which was weird because we had turned off the motion detector while we were away. Went and watched the camera and it looked like we had snow! The grassy parts next to our driveway were covered with white and the trees looked like they had snow on them too. It was the weirdest thing considering they are having heat advisories down there. Evidently it was hail. Some severe thunderstorms had gone through and there was hail.

Acadia was fun today. We went up Cadillac Mountain and ds was doing the stereo-typical whiny teenager thing and dd told him he needed to appreciate the time with family because we were getting older and who knew how much longer we'd be going on family vacations. Which was kind of funny the way she said it at the time. We ended up not hiking much. The trail started with stairs and some strong uphill slopes and ds's leg started acting up, dh's knee started acting up, dd and I forgot to use our inhalers and started having trouble so we all decided to give up. We went to the beach and I did end up going in. Dd loves waves and at first didn't want to go in, but we did some walking in the surf and then were sitting on rocks getting splashed and she gradually worked her way in. Tomorrow is our last day. We're going to a beach really close to the house we are staying at. We went at the beginning of the week but at high tide and there was no "beach" to speak of. So we're going tomorrow at low tide. Dh is going on a fishing trip so it's just the kids and I. Saturday we head home.

Morning, Happy Thursday. We went on a whale watch yesterday. Saw a little pod of 4 humpback whales. We had tickets for all 5 of us, but ds woke up saying his leg hurt (probably from all the uphill walking the day before) and didn't want to go so we ended up letting him stay behind. Which solved a problem we were trying to figure out of what to do with the dog. Dog was okay staying alone the first day we went out, but second time when we were out for only a few hours he ended up throwing up, possibly from the heat combined with his anxiety (dog has separation anxiety). Whale watch was a much longer day so we were debating options when ds basically solved the problem for us. But then dd, who has anxiety, was worried about being on the boat for 4 hours. I did manage to coax her into going since I knew she would love it (she was in awe of the porpoises we saw from the ferry and loves the feeling of wind in her face, she's very sensory seeking unlike her brother who is sensory avoidant). She brought her tablet (that she draws on), her phone, and I ended up letting her bring Macaroni, her giant stuffed lobster. She did have a good time, said she wasn't miserable but didn't know if she'd want to do it again. We did see whales but they didn't really come up high or breach so there wasn't a lot to see. Today we're going to Acadia National Park. We got a pass to drive up to the top of Cadillac Mountain, then we are going to do one of the easier hikes with a beach on one end so we can swim a little bit. At least the kids can swim. I'll probably just beachcomb and maybe wade a little bit.

We are on vacation in Maine so my routine (such as it was) is out the window. I'm just hoping I didn't undo all the weight I lost. Diet is definitely out the window but we are getting lots of exercise so I'm hoping it balances out. We head home Saturday and I start classes again Monday so I should be able to get into a good routine then.

Fun time in Bar Harbor. Rough walking all that uphill but still fun. Did some shopping, had lunch at Geddy's. Dd bought a ridiculously large stuffed lobster that was all she wanted. Ds and I bought some rocks and I bought one of those old hand boiler things for class. Coming back on the ferry we saw a pod of porpoises around the boat.

My son's first job was with Spirit Halloween. It was the perfect first job to make some spending money for the year. They were fairly flexible with hours if you told them when hired, it only ran from late August to the first week of November so ended before any holidays, and was a great fit for a somewhat quirky kid. They could wear costumes or their own clothes.

I'll share more pictures but they're all too large so I have to do something about that.

Morning. I'm not sure what day it is today. Being on vacation is lovely. We're heading into Bar Harbor on a ferry today. Just to roam around and do some shopping. Then taking the ferry back. We've mainly been relaxing the past few days because holiday weekend and Bar Harbor was insane when we went by the other day. We did have some great lobster already, seen seals right from our deck, and just relaxed in the fresh air. The rest of the week will be more active - shopping, hiking, whale watch, lots of lobster. Friday dh is taking a charter fishing trip that he is super looking forward to. The kids and I, and mom will just stay local to the house. There's a beach nearby for tidal pools, and beach-combing but when we checked it out the other day it was high tide. We definitely need to go during low tide and the timing for that is better on Friday, so that works out well.